Different URI for each instance of UIViewController - ios

Question

I have a UITabController with five tabs. Each tab simply holds an instance of a custom UIViewController, and each instance holds a UIWebView.
I want the UIWebView in each tab to open a different URI, but I don't think it should be necessary to create a new class for each tab.
I can make it work if I do [self.webView loadRequest:] in -(void)viewDidLoad but it seems ridiculous to create five different classes with five different versions of viewDidLoad when all I really want to change is the URI.
Here's what I've tried:
appDelegate.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface elfAppDelegate : UIResponder <UIApplicationDelegate, UITabBarControllerDelegate>
#property (strong, nonatomic) UIWindow *window;
#property (strong, nonatomic) UITabBarController *tabBarController;
#end
appDelegate.m
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];
customVC *start = [[customVC alloc] init];
customVC *eshop = [[customVC alloc] init];
customVC *table = [[customVC alloc] init];
customVC *video = [[customVC alloc] init];
customVC *other = [[customVC alloc] init];
// Doesn't do anything... I wish it would!
[start.webView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://google.com"]]];
self.tabBarController = [[UITabBarController alloc] init];
self.tabBarController.viewControllers = #[start, eshop, table, video, other];
self.window.rootViewController = self.tabBarController;
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
return YES;
}
customVC.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface customVC : UIViewController <UIWebViewDelegate> {
UIWebView* mWebView;
}
#property (nonatomic, retain) UIWebView* webView;
- (void)updateAddress:(NSURLRequest*)request;
- (void)loadAddress:(id)sender event:(UIEvent*)event;
#end
customVC.m
#interface elfVC ()
#end
#implementation elfVC
#synthesize webView = mWebView;
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
self.webView = [[UIWebView alloc] init];
[self.webView setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 480)];
self.webView.delegate = self;
self.webView.scalesPageToFit = YES;
[self.view addSubview:self.webView];
}

Answer 1

Create a property of type NSURL* in your customVC.
Change your customVC's -(id)init method to -(id)initWithURL:(NSURL*)url as follows:
-(id)initWithURL:(NSURL*)url{
self = [super init];
if(self){
self.<URLPropertyName> = url;
}
return self;
}
Then call
[start.webView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:self.<URLPropertyName>]];
in viewDidLoad
Then when you initialize your different instances of customVC, just use
customVC *vc = [customVC alloc]initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://..."]];

Answer 2

I suspect you are initialising your webview after calling it's loadRequest: method. To avoid this, it's a better practice to initialise nonatomic properties by overriding their setters:
- (UIWebView*)webview {
if (mWebView == nil) {
// do the initialization here
}
return mWebView;
}
This way your webview will be initialised when you first access it (while calling loadRequest:) and not after it, in your custom view controller's viewDidLoad method.